She sighs, dropping her chin to her chest. “Fine. In this case only, I will do a completely unnecessary prenatal check. But after that, I and Dr. Rossi will determine what is appropriate.”
“As long as the answer to that question is ‘tomorrow’ and ‘everyday after that’ then we’re good.”
She bites in a breath. “Then we’re not good. Vin, you can’t just—”
“Sophia!” I’m done with her attitude. “There is a version of today where you don’t walk out of that coffee shop. Where you and our baby die at the hands of a fucking asshole. I’m not letting that go. You may think it’s ridiculous, but this is the only thing I have control over.”
She scowls at me. “Except that you don’t have control over me, and that’s where the baby lives right now. I can choose my own medical care.”
I shove my hands through my hair, exhausted and frustrated. Why doesn’t she get this? Why does she have to fight me on every little thing? “You agreed to let Rossi look after you.”
“I did. Dr. Rossi, is it normal to have a prenatal checkup everyday?”
Dr. Rossi looks at me and I roll my eyes.
“It is not,” he says.
“See?” She looks at me pointedly, and I turn to Dr. Rossi, who closes his eyes briefly.
“It will only take 10 minutes.”
At least the mother fucker is on my payroll. He knows whose side he needs to be on.
Sophie shrieks in frustration and turns away from us, breathing hard. It takes a minute, but finally she says, “Fine. But Vin doesn’t need to be here for this, does he?”
I throw my hands up but turn and gesture for them to go into the bedroom as I settle on the couch in the living room. Rossi keeps the door open and makes sure to ask his questions loudly and repeat her answers so I can hear. Not that it’s a big apartment, but he understands the assignment.
When I hear the whir of the baby’s heartbeat on Rossi’s portable monitor, I almost fucking cry actual tears. Fuck, I’m tired.
When he comes back into the living room, he gives me a single nod.
I let out a long breath and clap him on the shoulder once. “Same time tomorrow.”
He picks up his bag. “Mr. Demonio—”
“Same time tomorrow, Rossi.”
He doesn’t bother arguing as he lets himself out. Sophie doesn’t come out of the bedroom and I take out my phone, texting the other people I asked to meet me here.
When they arrive, I answer the door and let them in. They’recarrying sheets of bulletproof glass and bags of tools.
Sophie emerges sleepily from the bedroom. “What is this?”
“Windows first. Then the walls, floors, and ceilings. Blast-proofing throughout. Bars on every entrance and every window on every floor.” There’s a lot more than that too, reinforcements for the entire building, but no need to get into that now. Gavin may have been neutralized and Ronan made it clear there’s no more threat of war, but it’s not ‘if’ this will happen again. It’s ‘when.’
She stares at the panels then at the men and back at me. “Then why,” she says carefully, “do they have AV equipment?”
A second team arrives behind the first, and they are carrying video cameras of all sizes, cables, control panels and monitors, but I’m already back on my phone checking up on the third team.
“Why do you think, Sophia?”
“Vin.”
I don’t answer, still texting.
“Vin.”
I move an end table out of the way for one of the guys who needs to install a camera behind me.
